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brother. It was then that the walls of Stamford, and the fatal Welland renowned in prophecy,[1] beheld that direful conflict, in which,
after displaying the most undaunted valour, the King of Norway, and Tosti, both fell with ten thousand of their bravest followers. Who would have thought that upon the proud day when this battle was won, the very gale which waved the Saxon banners in triumph, was filling the Norman sails, and impelling them to the fatal shores of Sussex?—Who would have thought that Harold, within a few brief days, would himself pos-
- ↑ Close by Stamford, was fought, in 1066, the bloody
battle in which Harold defeated his rebel brother Tosti,
and the Norwegians, only a few days before his fall at
Hastings. The bridge over the Welland was furiously
contested. One Norwegian long defended it by his single
arm, and was at Iength pierced with a spear thrust through
the planks from a boat beneath. Spencer and Drayton,
both allude to the prophecies current concerning the fatal
Welland:—
"Which to that ominous flood much fear and reverence wan."Poly-Olbion.L.T.
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